Plerospheres and their role in reduction of emitted fine fly ash particles

Particles, less than PM10 in size, emitted from the stack of pulverized coal-fired power plants are of environmental concern since they can easily enter the human respiratory track. These fine particles are examined by Scanning Electron Microscope/Electron Dispersive Spectrometry （SEM/EDX）. Plerospheres are found in fly ash and are particles containing smaller particles formed during combustion of coal. The large plerospheres 〉50 μm mostly are present in ESP fly ash, indicating that they are effectively capturing fine particles and reducing their stack emission.     

The effects of carbon dioxide leakage on fractures, and water quality of potable aquifers during geological sequestration of CO2

Since industrial revolution, the ＂greenhouse effect＂ is one of the most important global environmental issues. Of all the greenhouse gases, CO2 is responsible for about 64% of the enhanced ＂greenhouse effect＂, making it the target for mitigation, so reducing anthropogenic discharge of carbon dioxide attracts more and more attention. Geological sequestration of CO2 in deep saline aquifers is one of the most promising options. But because unknown fractures and faults may exist in the caprock layers which can prevent the leakage of CO2, CO2 will leak upward into upper potable aquifers, and lead to adverse impacts on the shallow potable aquifers. In order to assess the potential effect of CO2 leakage from underground storage reservoirs on fractures and water quality of potable aquifers, this study used the non-isothermal reactive geochemical transport code TOUGHREACT developed by Xu et al to establish a simplified 2-D model of CO2 underground sequestration system, which includes deep saline aquifers, caprock layers, and shallow potable aquifers, and study and analyze the changes of mineral and aqueous components. The simulation results indicated that the minerals of deep saline aquifers and fractures should be mainly composed of aluminosilicate and silicate minerals, which not only enhance the mass of CO2 sequestrated by mineral trapping, but also decrease the porosity and permeability of caprock layers and fractures to prevent and reduce CO2 leakage. The results from deep saline aquifers showed that the mass of carbon dioxide trapped by minerals and solution phases is limited, the rest remained as a supercritical phase, and so once the caprock aquifers have some unknown fractures, the free carbon dioxide phase may leak from CO2 geologic sequestration reservoirs by buoyancy.     

Factors controlling the spatial and temporal variability of dust emissions

New field measurement techniques are allowing researchers to better understand how surficial properties affect the temporal and spatial variability of dust emissions. In this paper we review the current understanding of the dust emission process and present new field measurements that examine how three surface properties： roughness, crust strength, and temporal changes of surface properties affect dust emissions. These data were collected using three unique measurement systems developed by our team. Roughness exerts considerable control on the entrainment threshold and emissions of dust from a surface. We have carried out a series of experiments designed to quantify roughness effects on aeolian sediment entrainment and transport in a shear stress partitioning framework. Our results show that the model of Raupach et al. （1993） provides very good agreement with available data to predict the amount of shearing stress on the intervening surface among roughness elements, relatively independent of their size and distribution. However, element size affects the aeolian sediment transport process beyond that attributable only to the reduction of surface shear stress caused by the roughness. Additional interactions of the elements with the saltation cloud appear to reduce the transport efficiency and potentially dust emissions as well. The effect of crust strength on dust emissions was assessed using a newly-developed pin penetrometer, which can measure crust strength in-situ. Previous researchers suggested that variation in crust strength even within a small area could lead to considerable spatial variability in dust emissions. Our measurements showed that crust strength is highly variable over a scale of centimeters. This variability may help to explain some of the observed scatter in field measurements of dust emissions for what appear to be homogeneous surfaces. Variability of dust emissions in time and space was also evaluated using a new instrument, the Portable In-Situ Wind Erosion Lab （PI-SWERL） developed to measure dust emissions from soil surfaces.     

Total gaseous mercury emissions from mercury-enriched soil in Guizhou, China

Guizhou is located in the Circum-Pacific Global Mercuriferous Belt, and mercury concentrations in soil in this area are enriched. In-situ total gaseous mercury （TGM） exchange fluxes between air and soil surface were intensively measured at four sampling sites in Guiyang from 21 May to 16 June, 2003, and five sites in the Lanmuchang mercury mining area in December 2002 and May 2003, respectively. The in-situ Hg flux measurement was conducted with a dynamic flux chamber （DFC） of quartz. Overall, net emissions were obtained from all sampling sites. Soil mercury concentration and solar radiation have been proved to be the two most important parameters to control mercury emissions from soil. Meanwhile, rain events can enhance mercury emission rate significantly.     

森林碳汇决策与农村可持续发展研究(英文)

认为有必要在基于碳汇的土地利用和当地可持续发展之间建立一种更加明确的联系.依托一个中国-加拿大合作项目,以中国贵州省黎平县为例,阐述了一种将森林碳汇、森林资源管理以及如何促进当地可持续发展联系起来的综合评估方法,并且着重介绍了能帮助资源管理和规划部门实施这种综合评估的土地利用决策支持工具(LUDST) .     

湿地生态系统碳循环过程及碳动态模型

从地上、地下有机物质生产对湿地碳输入的贡献,湿地土壤碳库以及土地利用变化对湿地土壤碳库和碳排放的影响,甲烷排放和可溶性有机碳输出以及影响因子,湿地生态系统碳循环动态模型4个方面对湿地生态系统碳循环国内外研究进展和研究成果进行综述、分析,提出了我国亚热带区域天然湿地碳循环研究的主要热点和方向:⑴沿海湿地碳库估算及土地利用转化对土壤碳库和温室气体排放的影响;⑵酸沉降对于我国东南沿海低纬度地区湿地甲烷排放的影响;⑶沿海湿地生态系统碳循环动态模型的应用与开发;⑷湿地系统可溶性有机碳的输出机理探讨.     

大气CO2浓度升高对土壤中不同粒级碳的影响

不同粒级土壤中的碳有着不同的周转规律，在高CO2浓度条件下，它们含量的变化将在一定程度上反映土壤碳是累积还是减少，对明确土壤碳的变化趋势有重要意义．采用田间培养试验初步模拟研究在高CO2浓度条件下土壤不同粒级碳的分布．结果表明，加入秸秆培养1年，由于CO2浓度升高的原因导致在低氮（LN）、常规氮（NN）和高氮（HN）水平下土壤中碳分别增加0．01、1．10、1．22g／kg，表现为粒级〈53μm土壤颗粒中碳分别增加1．53、2．19、2．70g／kg．粒级〈53μmm土壤颗粒碳量的增加，主要是由于其重量分配百分数显著增加36．2％，碳浓度增加5．4％；粒级〉250μm和250～53μm土壤颗粒部分虽然其碳浓度分别增加20．8％和17．3％（P〈0．05），怛由于重量分配百分数分别显著降低22．8％和36．1％，结果碳量降低．试验表明高CO2浓度导致不同粒级土壤的分配及碳浓度的变化；高氮施肥水平下有增加土壤碳量特别是小粒级土壤碳量的趋势．